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Everything posted by Mark Romero 2

Yeah, the S1 is kind of a pain on my Weebill S, where ti sits 99% of the time when shooting video. On a gimbal, the two function buttons on the front of the camera are kind of useless (and I still haven't even figured out what to assign to the two lever locks).

Ok, so a few things...
I’m using my histogram and the built in exposure meter but I’ve read to expose between 1-2 stops over.
Well, that is if you are going to be metering middle gray off of a gray card. But that is difficult to do for a real estate video when you are trying to hold a gimbal and camera in one hand and you will be in a room large enough and with different brightness levels so you don't know what part of the room to put the gray card in.
In general, when in a high contrast scene, I try to expose SLOG 2 about 1/2 stop before the maximum zebras for SLOG2 appear. Double check what the max zebras are for SLOG 2. I think it is 105 IRE but I could be mistaken so double check.
It is VERY IMPORTANT you don't set the zebra level above SLOG 2's maximum point because if you do, the zebras will NEVER appear. So if SLOG 2 clips at 105 IRE (which I think it does, but you are going to double check, right???) and you set the zebra display to show at 106 IRE or higher (which I believe is over SLOG 2's upper limit), then the zebras will NEVER show, no matter how bright your scene is.
Let’s say I’m shooting a kitchen scene with nice windows but not much light. Would I balance between the two readings and maybe increase my iso from 800 to 1600 with the appropriate f-stop to match?
At that point, when it is REALLY contrasty, you just have to decide what is most important to you. Is the view out the window most important? If so, expose for the view and realize that you will probably have to crush the shadows / blacks a bit to keep the noise down. But if the interior of the kitchen is most important, then let the windows over-expose and just keep your exposure high enough so that the interior of the kitchen is about 1 stop or so over what a normal exposure would be.
If both the interior AND the view are important, then you are just going to have to shoot more than one scene / one angle with proper exposure for whatever makes up the bulk of that shot.
As for ISO, try to keep it at ISO 800 because that has the most dynamic range for SLOG 2.
Shooting in cine4 is easier to wrap my head around because I’m not thinking as much but I realize you give up a bit of dynamic range.
Yeah, but you give up about a stop and a half or something like that in reduced dynamic range. Also, I myself have found the roll-off in the cinegammas to look pretty nasty (although i remember @Deadcode mentioning that the rolloff in Cine 4 can be nice, but I don't think I have the skills / talent level of Deadcode to be able to get smooth rolloff with Cine 4, so I stick with SLOG 2)
The other thing is codec... isn’t the 1080 120fps a better codec than the 60fps?
No. Test this out to confirm, but 99% sure that it isn't a better codec. It is the SAME codec, but you have twice as many frames per second spread across 100Mbs worth of data. So in essence, each frame at 120fps is getting half the data each frame gets at 60fps (I know that isn't exactly how it works, but you get the idea).
The other thing is, if you want to stick to the 180-degree shutter rule, then if you are shooting at 120fps, you have to set your shutter for 1/250th of a second. It is unlikely you are going to be in a house shooting at 1/250th of a second. On the other hand, it might be useful if you are shooting outdoors in the bright sun with a shallow depth of field.

Obviously, I can't answer for Dustin's nephew. And I am curious about this, too.
But I can tell you that the reason I switched from my a6500 (which is a pretty good camera for RE video) to an S1 was for the 10-bit codec and the better screen and the better IBIS. I found that I don't need to use my external 5-inch monitor on my S1, not because the LCD screen is brilliant, but because it is "good enough" in bright sunlight (compared to the a6500 where you might as well just put a mirror on the back of the LCD because even a mirror would be LESS reflective than the screen on an a6500). So I wouldn't be surprised if those wer esome of the reason's his nephew went for the GH5.
Oddly enough, there is not a HUGE dynamic range benefit between the S1 and the a6500, but banding is all but eliminated and the shadows are significantly cleaner (Hmmm.... re-reading that< guess that means there IS a big difference in dynamic range???) Plus the 10-bit codec is really helpful in removing color casts (and when you are shooting real estate which is 98% of the time using available light / house lights, you get LOTS of color casts).
I haven't used a GH5, but if you are on a gimbal and walking through a house, shooting in 4K 60 would also be helpful to smooth out the footage in post. (Assuming of course it is just a straight "walkthrough" type video where you aren't recording anyone talking.

Actually, I am kind of happy with the Fashion Low Contrast lut in the Varicam pack. I still do my exposure in a node BEFORE the LUT is applied, and just use the shadows / highlights and contrast / pivot controls. Then I do the color changes in a node after the lut is applied.

Flexibility in scheduling is pretty important to most agents.
I am sure there are some who do pretty well on the side, but most agents are going to want to hire someone who can come in at, say, 10:00 am on a Tuesday morning, and have the video ready for them within 24 hours. Not ALL agents will require that, but I think most will.
Agents also have a tendency to schedule EVERYONE together. So they will schedule you, AND the stills photographer, AND the gardener, AND the electrician, AND the window washer to all show up at the same time so that you are going to have to work around each other. I once showed up to a gig and their were four of the Molly Maids (house cleaners) that showed up at the same time. The agent just wanted to get everything done in a hurry so they scheduled everyone for the same time.

As someone who make their living doing real estate photography and video full time...
Here is what the sony a6500 and 10-18 lens (which I actually recommend, although the 12mm Rokinon / Samyang is supposed to be good). Also used a Phantom 3 Pro (also called a P3P). I'm using the Sony camera on the first generation Zhiyun Crane.
https://youtu.be/8S6NbTHqgxk
The issue I would imagine the main issue with the Samyang / Rokinon 12mm is the distortion will have to be corrected. Might be less of a problem in still photos, more of a problem in video. The Sony 10-18 already has the distortion corrected.
You really should think about doing photography as well, because your competitors will offer both video and drone and photography. And of course, you are most likely going to need a drone.
Really, the most important lesson is that quality of photo is not as important to the agents as reliability and speed in turning around photos (and video). And for 95% of real estate agents, price is a BIG factor. I am a bit of an anomaly because I charge MORE than my competitors and I do strive for more quality in my photos and I take longer to turn around photos and videos. There is a smaller group of agents who will work with me.
With the shelter in place order, I have seen more requests for video from agents who don't normally request video. I don't know if that will continue in two to three months as either states relax their shelter in place orders, or people just get tired of following the rules and more people decide to disobey them.
Oh, and you are going to want to use SLOG 2 with the s-gmaut.3.cine picture profile. There is a tool (can't remember the name) to transform that combo into ACES. I can look it up later for you. With real estate video, dynamic range is pretty important.

Hopefully, the new Mavic whatever will help lower the cost of a used Phantom 4 Pro (currently flying the P3A and liking it but I could definitely use the more megapixels in stills and a bit less noise in low light).
My real question is how are people supposed to be investing in new drones since we still don't have a good idea of what exactly the remote identification requirements will be (here in the US of A) and whether any of the current models will be able to be retrofitted to meet these requirements???

Not ideal, but I can live with slightly reduced dynamic range if the rolloff is really nice (like Cineon log curve where colors desaturate to white as they get near 100% luminance). I just can't stand the nuclear orange supernovas around the sun... or around hotspots on peoples faces. A while ago (about three months or so) someone posted some film footage here from a formula 1 race (Le Mans???) and even though the DR was spectacular, the rolloff was nice.

Hmmm... I think there will be a lot of what we find in smartphones improved upon and built in to cameras... Don't know if this is going to extend to the major players (RED, ARRI, etc.,) but since Sony has always tried to put a lot of tech into their cameras, wouldn't be surprised to see them sort of leading the way on this.

Probably something with a lot of AI in it / in-camera processing will be the next big thing in camera development, if I were to bet.
For my particular needs, more usable dynamic range is always a priority.

Yeah, as far as the prebuilt luts, the Nice709 is probably my favorite.
In fact, the other LUTs in that varicam lut library are basically unusable, IMHO. I don't know, though. Maybe someone smarter than me can put them to good use (and there are lots of people out there smarter than me. just ask my wife.)

I don't know which NLE you are using, but doing a Color Space Transform in Resolve from VLOG / VGamut gives a less red result than using the VLOG to 709 default LUT in Resolve. (I'm assuming that the LUT that is built in to Resolve is the "official" panasonic LUT. Apologies in advance if it isn't.)
I haven't tried this with my S1 yet, but with my Sony a6500 I was quite pleased with the colors I got from doing a CST from SLOG 2 / s.gamut2.cine to - Arri Log C / Arri Gamut - > 709. So that might also be worth a try.

In the top photo, it is shot in open shade, looks like just as the sun has dropped down over the horizon (on the viewers right). The clouds are just starting to get lit from underneath. and are starting to skew warm. Probably the whole image has been graded warmer because this looks to be a little later in the day than the "golden hour" and just at the start of twilight. Watching through the first video, there are a lot of scenes where it was shot in open shade, and then some scenes that were shot in harder light conditions.
This is what happens when you start drinking bleach and blasting your body with UV light...

I haven't really experienced any problems with optimized media since Resolve 12. Although I rarely need to create optimized media. But in the times that I have used it, optimized media has been fine.
The render cache, to me, is a bit weird because if it renders a clip, and then there is a ripple delete earlier in the timeline, that clip will have to be rendered again. That's using the standard smart render feature. there might be a way to avoid this behavior if I dig around.

The problem with using a shower curtain or ripstop nylon as a shoot through material is that a lot of the light is lost, since it bounces off the diffusion material and back toward the lens.
The benefit of a soft box is that some of that light that bounces off the diffusion material is then "reclaimed" by the white (or silver) lining of the softbox. With most softboxes, I think you would get around one-stop more light than if you used a simple diffusion fabric hanging from a mic stand in front of the light panel. (It has been a while since I tested this out with my old photoflex soft box (RIP), and some of my nylon diffusing material, so I don't want to swear by how much more powerful a softbox actually is.)
Paul C. Buff claims their reflective soft silver Parabolic Light Modifiers (PLMs) provide four times the light output of softboxes. But that was with strobes / flashguns, which are going to block a lot less light than light panels when light is bounced off them. However, their soft silver PLM's are a bit specular and shadow contrast is higher than a typical softbox / octabox.
One can use the white cover with the soft silver plm to make it less specular and lower contrast, but that cuts down the efficiency of the light.
https://www.paulcbuff.com/Light-Modifiers/PLM-Umbrellas/86-Soft-Silver-PLM-Umbrella.html
I haven't used the soft silver PLM yet, but am thinking of getting one... either that or go with a godox or other light similar to aputure 120D and go with a softbox.

IBIS on the sony is pretty decent for shooting stills. It is pretty mediocre for shooting video, IMHO, and the IBIS on my a6500 doesn't compare well at all to the IBIS on my Panasonic S1.
I think a compounding factor might be the really bad rolling shutter on sony bodies also makes it appear worse.
I wonder if shooting at a faster shutter speed than the 1/180th rule would make the IBIS appear better (at the expense of more staccato movement, of course). Something to try out for the next sunny day.